What an excellent car the W140 is.

[James Rothwell]

I got back late last night from a mini-roadtrip in the S600.

What a brilliant car it is. Covered 1,800 miles or so I think and averaged every tank about 21mpg and that was everything from Autobahn blastings to stop-start traffic. It catered for 3 of us extremely well, the Bose stereo is extremely good. The W140 gets a lot of respect from people across Germany which was pretty cool. Drove from Prague to Nurburg non-stop on the return leg and I could have turned around and gone back again straight away.

The car has developed an annoying squeek/creak from the front of the car from the front nearside shock but only after it's been driven for a few hours and also it then develops a odd creaking noise when the steering wheel is turned but let the car rest and it goes? Very odd but I'll get it looked at and sorted.

Just got to decide where to go for our next trip, probably going to be in Feb next year.

I haven't really got any photos of the car just of the general scenery but I have got one of the car that my friend in took.

EDIT-
I have found a rubbish photo of the car.... I had chosen to forget about it though for obivous reasons! I didn't realise it was permit holders only as I can't read Czech and I didn't see the blue lines on the tarmac when I arrived at 10pm in the rain!

 

[Lugy]

Even though I only have half your engine I can definitely confirm how good they are!

Last weekend I did a much smaller trip (600 miles ) to Scarborough and down to Hull, I've not been in something comfier. Even going down the moors it was still good!

I'm planning on going to either the south of France or into the Arctic next year

 

[jonnyboy]

I agree. I jut think my s500 with 80k miles was more of a drivers car than our current 50k miler s430 (w220)

 

[219]

Glad to hear of your good experiences .

I was put off a W140 by all the tales of electrical gremlins etc , and ended up buying the W126 , which I am nonetheless delighted with also .

I guess ANY S-Class is going to be a good car .

 

[EDZ649]

147 MPH! Good man!

 

[Will]

Glad to hear that you enjoyed your trip.

it then develops a odd creaking noise when the steering wheel is turned but let the car rest and it goes?

Could this be a faulty ball joint?

Will

 

[MD5]

147 MPH! Good man!

With a left turn 130yds ahead! Excellent!:bannana:

 

[kth286]

552 miles divided by 7.52 hours = 73.4 mph

 

[Setanta]

They are brilliant for the autobahning! We saw a handful of W140's on our trip and no C140's at all.

I don't think the Germans saw much of mine though since the primary purpose of the trip was to take advantage of those lovely signs with the diagonal lines so we did tend to spend much of our time towards the end of the speedo.

Got to love the big powerplants - indicate left, pull out, foot past the detent on the accelerator for the kickdown and "Bye bye Mr Audi, bye bye Mr BMW"

We did encounter some nutter warpdrive equipped Audi estates that must have been close to 300kph as one of them passed me on a straight when our GPS was showing about 245kph and it was like we were standing still.

 

[nullogik]

What kind of fuel mileage did you average across your journey?

I'm thinking of a W140 S320 - since I live in London a bigger engine is not necessary and will be far too thirsty. Do you have any thoughts on your W140 ownership, having had the car now for a few months?

 

[grober]

We did encounter some nutter warpdrive equipped Audi estates that must have been close to 300kph as one of them passed me on a straight when our GPS was showing about 245kph and it was like we were standing still.

Probably one of these RS 6 AVANT ------ Twin turbo 5.0 litre V10 TFSI® petrol engine 580PS (426 kW): 650 Nm at 1,500 to 6,250 rpm.
(Fuel consumption, combined: 20.2 mpg (14 l/100 km); CO2 emissions, combined: 333 g/km)

 

[James Rothwell]

Even though I only have half your engine I can definitely confirm how good they are!

Last weekend I did a much smaller trip (600 miles ) to Scarborough and down to Hull, I've not been in something comfier. Even going down the moors it was still good!

I'm planning on going to either the south of France or into the Arctic next year

Go to the Arctic, I drove to Nordkapp (Northern Cape) in Feb 2007 and it was amazing. Make sure you've got a proper vehicle for the job though, it was minus 42*c during the day one day.

There are more photos on my website www.longwaythere.net under Arctic Adventure.

 

[James Rothwell]

What kind of fuel mileage did you average across your journey?

I'm thinking of a W140 S320 - since I live in London a bigger engine is not necessary and will be far too thirsty. Do you have any thoughts on your W140 ownership, having had the car now for a few months?

I got generally 21mpg regardless of how I drove which was pretty odd, probably to do with the faulty air mass meter as it was 21mpg on a 80mph tank the whole way and it was also 21mpg on the 100-147mph tank the whole way which was impressive.

I've had a W140 a couple of years ago which was a S500. I loved that car especially the colour, Aqua Marine. Brilliant cars for the money, they are very durable but do require looking after properly. The 3.2 is fine, people will tell you it's too slow but it's not bad, I'd choose a 3.2 over the 4.2 V8, but I think the best engine is probably the 5.0 the 6.0 V12 is pretty pointless but it's quite cool just to have.

 

[SilverSaloon]

sounds great. A S500 or S600 is down as my next car. I dont think I can part with my W124 estate at the moment but you never know i may just get one anyway and have both - something that if i keep on telling myself is a good idea, next year i may actually do it.

 

[James Rothwell]

I've only ever had 2 of the same car. W210 and W140. The W140 is such a fantastic car, I hope to always have a car like the W140 but I do realise that a time will come when it's too old and I'll have to find something else to drive. I'm not convinced by the W220 for some reason they just don't have the same feel to them as the W140, I haven't driven a W221 yet but the ones I've sat in at MB seem to have a nice solid feel to them but they are still low £20k-ish which is more than I could spend.

 

[kth286]

Agreed, the W220 just does not look imposing enough for a 'top' car.

Take the badge off and it will look like any other down trodden tired jap limo.

They will be worthless soon.

It really was the worst period for Merc that generation of cars - what on earth were they thinking.

 

[James Rothwell]

Imposing is actually a good word for the W140, and you're right for some reason an old W140 in good condition would still look the part outside an embassy where as an early W220 wouldn't look good at all. I actually quite like the ride of the W220 when the airmatic is actually working and it's marginally more refined at high speeds.

I do fancy trying a W220 BiTurbo though, I'm sure I'd love it.
Next year I think I might borrow some money and buy myself a nice new-ish car. Could play with £13k or so I reckon, but sadly that won't buy me a W221 so I might have to go down the Audi A8 route as I like those, or I'll come to my senses and realise that I don't need a massive car like that since I haven't got a family and get something smaller like a W211 obviously a 500 though, or maybe spend a little more and get something I really love like a E55K AMG!! I love those!

 

[st4]

I haven't driven a W221 yet but the ones I've sat in at MB seem to have a nice solid feel to them but they are still low £20k-ish which is more than I could spend.

Bide your time, they'll drop. Give it another 2-3years and there will be plenty 221s for sensible money. For now, my advice is to enjoy the car you have.

 

[C43AMG]

Imposing ?? Tank like, Embassy's get very worried when Tanks are outside.